52 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY IN FRANCE. 



I would invite the attention of those who are unwilling to give 

 Amber cane a fair trial, to consider the early history and present 

 ■condition of the beet sugar industry in France. 



Ii would appear most probable that slave labor in the tropics 

 -with such a plant for elaborating the sugar as the Ribbon cane, 

 •would foiever prevent peasarjt labor on high priced land which 

 had been for centuries under cultivation, from making such a 

 plant as the beet yield a profitable income, yet by the most rigid 

 applications of science combined with careful management of 

 machinery and strictest economy in saving all by-products, 

 France is now producing over fifty million dollars worth of sugar 

 per year. 



I present the following facts taken from Dr. McMurtrie's report 

 on the culture of the sugar beet : ^ 



In 1797 Karl Franz Achard announced to the Institute of 

 France that he was able to manufacture sugar from the beet, at a 

 cost not exceeding six cents per pound. Though his statement 

 was met with ridicule, a committee was appointed by the Insti- 

 tute to examine his methods and repeat his experiments. 



They reported as a result of these tests that a good raw 

 sugar could be manufactured for about eighteen cents per 

 pound, though this figure might be somewhat reduced by im- 

 proved methods. - This report dampened the ardor of the French, 

 and nothing was done by them for a time, but in Germany, 

 Achard and Baron de Koppy each erected works and made con- 

 siderable quantities of sugar. 



The famous Berlin and Milan decrees, which excluded all 

 products of English manufacture, so enhanced the prices of 

 sugar in Europe that these manufactories paid good profits, and 

 this coupled with need, again drew the attention of the French to 

 the solution of the problem. The enthusiasm of the Emperor 



' Eeport on [the culture of the sugar beet and the manufacture of sugar 

 therefrom in France and the United States, by Wm. McMurtrie, E. M. Ph. D. 

 Washington, 1880. 



